I've written here previously about what I believe is the #1 most important electoral reform. More important than ending gerrymandering, more important than ending the legal extortion and bribery of elected officials, more important than term limits, more important than no political party shall be privileged, and more important than ending first-past-the-post single mark ballots (the #2 most important electoral reform) is the right to a
It is a delicate yet sometimes not-very-graceful balancing act that our elected representatives must constantly perform. It is an act executed on a high-wire strung between opposing interests and electorates. Much of this challenge is considered by many to be a result of partisan primary elections.
The Nation, 3 senators will introduce new legislation on Thursday, January 16, that would update the Voting Rights Act (VRA) with a new formula to determine when preclearance is needed.
As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it? - William M. “Boss” Tweed, c. 1871
History shows that for as long as the right to vote has existed, that right has been threatened. Thomas Nast’s caricature portraying “Boss” Tweed leaning against a pedestal on which stands “the Ballot” symbolizes a dark time in late nineteenth century America, where the “playing field” of politics was leveraged by party bosses and machine politics at the expense of the voters.
During the last few election cycles, we have seen a great change in the American electorate not just in terms of demographics, but in terms of ideology as well.
Primaries first began in the early twentieth century as a response to increasingly strong party control over elections. At the time, voters wanted a larger say in who would be chosen as their candidate, instead of the long-standing tradition of party bosses choosing who would run for office. Progressive reformers viewed direct primaries as a way for constituencies to increase transparency and allow for citizens to participate in the electoral process.
Well, we know Eric Snowden is a traitor. Just like Benedict Arnold. Arnold turned his back on the patriots and gave our secrets to the British, put on a big red coat, and proceeded to make an English muffin topped with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. . . . It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States.”—Abraham Lincoln, 1858
